It has long been an understood disadvantage to drivers of pickup trucks that when the cargo bed is empty there exists a significant amount of bounce while driving the truck. This occurs because the trucks are built with rear-wheel drive and are generally engineered to achieve optimal handling with a full cargo load. Pickup trucks are not always driven with a full cargo bed, particularly when driving to pick up a load or driving after unloading previously transported cargo. Furthermore, with the increased popularity of using pickup trucks as passenger vehicles, often times while the cargo bed is empty, there is an increased need for improving quality of ride.
In the past, drivers of pickup trucks have instituted their own quick and dirty method of reducing the bounce created by driving with an empty cargo bed. This has involved the loading of various media into the cargo bed, such as sand bags, concrete, weights, wood blocks, etc. This method is generally ineffective in that the weight is unevenly distributed throughout the cargo bed and has a propensity to slip and move while the vehicle is in use. The uneven distribution leads to a minimized amount of bounce reduction. Furthermore, the fact that the items placed in the cargo bed are generally large numbers of small items, these items move around the bed according to the movement of the truck and can cause damage to the interior of the cargo bed.
A great variety of more complicated and more specialized methods and apparatus have been conceived, designed, and utilized in the past to stabilize a vehicle under various circumstances and to add ballast to more effectively control operation of the vehicle. Some prior applications have been proposed for overcoming both traction problems and weight distribution problems in small pick up trucks by means of affixing containers into various parts of the cargo bed that can be filled with weighted media, such as water or sand, to weigh down the cargo bed when the bed is empty. Approaches that involve the filling and emptying of containers of weighted media, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,527 to Desmarais, U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,741 to Maver, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,138 to Hall, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,315 to Heltenburg, U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,227 to Anderson and U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,281 to Chandler require the use of a significant amount of cargo bed space and the labor of filling and emptying the weighted media, such as water of sand. Some of these approaches attempt to minimize the use of space in the cargo bed by placing the containers in wheel wells or on the sidewalls of the cargo bed (U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,741 to Maver, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,315 to Heltenburg and U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,281 to Chandler). However, the labor of filling and emptying the weighted media still exists.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,527 to Desmarais and U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,227 to Anderson teach methods that fill a multiplicity of elongated parts that cover the entire cargo bed area and are relatively small in width to minimize the consumption of cargo space. Both of these approaches require bolting the apparatus to the cargo bed, thus causing permanent structural change the bed itself and requiring more labor in installation. In addition, both of these approaches involve complex interaction between the component parts relative to the approach of the current invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,138 to Hall teaches a ballast system including a receptacle placed laterally at the rear of the vehicle bed, attached to the vehicle through flexible straps. Like the methods described above, this system requires that the receptacle be filled and drained with weighted media as needed. The present invention is similar in approach as it is positioned at the rear of the vehicle and attached to the vehicle through existing components of the cargo bed itself. However, the present invention does not require the filling and emptying of weighted media and consumes a significantly smaller portion of the cargo space.
Similar to the other methods involving the addition of weighted media to the apparatus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,565 to Clendenin, Jr. discloses an apparatus with a rectangular base that fits between the wheel wells constructed to hold an array of concrete or cinder blocks over the rear axle of the vehicle. The apparatus further contains a removable rack for use in the transportation of cargo. Again, for ballast purposes, this approach requires the addition and removal of the concrete or cinder blocks to achieve the improvement in traction and reduction in bounce while driving with an empty cargo bed. Furthermore, the weight is contained in the center of the cargo bed, between the wheel wells, rather than in the rear of the vehicle, thereby reducing the efficiency of the quality of ride.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,953 to Chamberlain involves a pickup truck bed liner that incorporates a ballast means in the bed liner itself. Like the other approaches previously mentioned, this ballast involves the use of adding and filling weighted media into the ballast portion of the bed liner itself. This approach involves the installation of the related bed liner as well. For pickup trucks that already contain bed liners or for drivers who, for one reason or another, do not wish to purchase the bed liner associated with this ballast, this method does not satisfy their need.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,216 to Watts and U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,457 to James disclose vehicle-stabilizing devices similar to the present invention. These methods involve the placement of a device in the rear of a vehicle with the aim to reduce skidding and dampening vibration. Since these devices are designed to prevent skidding rather than to reduce bounce and increase traction, they contain complex inner mechanics composed of spring mechanisms to keep the weight of the vehicle centered. The Watts patent requires the use of lubricant as the inner workings of the device has moving parts. This device includes a system of guides, weights and springs to help keep weight stabilized in the center of the vehicle. This device serves a distinctly different purpose from the present invention and involves complex, moving parts. These same disadvantages exist in the James patent.
European Pat. No. EP 1 074 458 A2 to Schott discloses a ballast weight arrangement for a working vehicle. This device is composed of a ballast weight support in the transverse plane of the vehicle involving interlocking ballast weights. This system is designed primarily for large, agricultural vehicles, such as tractors. The device is structured to trail the vehicle body with a series of interlocking weights as needed to lend stability to the vehicle. This device is specialized for these large vehicles and is not readily adaptable to more typical pickup trucks. It is complex relatively to the present invention, requiring larger and more numerous parts to operate. The device is not designed to rest inside a pickup truck cargo bed.
Consequently, a need exists for a simple, compact device that is easy to install, consumes a negligible amount of cargo space and does not require the filling and emptying, or addition of, weighted media to fulfill its ballast purpose.